The Harper government’s controversial bill to end the long-gun registry has passed the House of Commons, marking the end of a long political battle over one of the most controversial law enforcement measures in recent memory

OTTAWA — The Harper government’s controversial bill to end the long-gun registry has passed the House of Commons, marking the end of a long political battle over one of the most controversial law enforcement measures in recent memory.

The bill passed easily, by a margin of 159 to 130, as the Conservatives used their majority in the House secure passage of the bill, which now goes to the Senate where the Conservatives also have a majority.

The mood in the House Wednesday evening was tense, although the outcome was never in doubt. The public galleries of the House of Commons were packed with staunch supporters and die-hard opponents of the gun registry.

But supporters of the long-gun registry, many of whom are from Quebec, said they were appalled by the festive attitude of the Conservatives, who attended a cocktail reception with pro-gun lobbyists on Parliament Hill to mark the historic change.

Quebec Conservative MP Maxine Bernier struck a dissonant chord with Quebecers Wednesday morning, after telling reporters about the celebration on the Hill this after the vote.

Tory MPs celebrated their victory with anti-gun registry lobbyists such as Tony Bernardo, who has worked for 15 years to end the registry though his lobbying efforts with the Canadian Institute for Legislative Action. The reception was closed to the media and public.

“Certain of my colleagues will have a reception this evening to underline the fact that we have realized another of our election promises,” Bernier said. “Certain colleagues want to meet with the people who have worked for many years to abolish the registry.”

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Almost all opposition MPs voted against the legislation — except for New Democrats Bruce Hyer and John Rafferty, who sided with the government.

Interim NDP leader Nycole Turmel said the Conservatives are “showing arrogance” with their end-of-the-registry cocktail party.

Interim Liberal leader Bob Rae called the Tories’ celebration inappropriate given that not everyone in the country agrees with government’s decision to kill the registry.

“All of us should be sensitive to the feelings of Canadians across the country,” Rae told reporters. “The more they celebrate, the more they distance themselves” from Canadians who don’t always agree with government policies.

Quebecers were also angered by a countdown clock on a Conservative party website ticking off the hours before the vote.

Public Security Minister Robert Dutil blasted the Harper government Wednesday for making the elimination of the registry a festive affair.

“I find this deplorable,” Dutil said Wednesday on his way into question period at the provincial legislature. “Frankly, they have a right to their opinion. We understand. It’s their opinion. They promised it. But to go so far as to celebrate . . . is not very adequate.”

Quebec has fought the federal government over the loss of the registry and plans to take the Harper government to court to prevent it from destroying the data it contains.

Despite what appears to be overwhelming support for the gun registry in Quebec, Bernier said Quebecers are behind the government’s moves to scrap the registry.

“We are very sensitive to sentiments of Quebecers. Most Quebecers want this,” he said. “People agree with the position of the party and it reflects their intentions and desires.”

Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois said celebrating the abolishing of the registry is “indecent and unacceptable.” She chose to read aloud at Quebec’s legislature the names of the 14 women killed in the 1989 Ecole Polytechnique massacre.

Bernier said that the Ecole Polytechnique shooting — the Montreal Massacre that provided the political impetus for the long-gun registry — could not have been prevented.

“The weapon used at Ecole Polytechnique was registered,” he said. “The fact of registering long guns does not permit us to fight efficiently against crime.”

Treasury Board President Tony Clement made no apologies for the post-vote reception, saying the Tory caucus has “the liberty to celebrate when our bills are passed.”

Clement was asked how victims of gun crime and their families, who will assemble on Parliament Hill for the vote, would feel to know MPs are popping champagne in celebration.

“It’s important to note we’re on the side of the victims, including those of gun crime,” he said. “We’re with people who have been dealt a terrible situation, a tragedy because of the bad guys.”

The Senate hearings are expected to take several weeks before the bill is passed into law. Once that happens, RCMP officials will begin deleting information in a massive database that provides details to police on what types of firearms registered gun owners possess.

The bill to abolish the gun registry — which dates back to the mid-1990s — has been a longstanding goal of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party. The Tories tried to kill the registry with a private member’s bill which was defeated in Oct 2010.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told reporters Wednesday, hours before the vote, the government’s actions are long overdue.

“It does nothing to help put an end to gun crimes, nor has it saved one Canadian life,” he said. “This is simply an attempt to make people feel safe, rather than doing something substantive in criminal law.”

The vote represents an historic turning point, Toews said, when the law will once again be on the side of shooters and hunters who have been wrongly persecuted for 17 years.

“Unfortunately, Liberals and some New Democrats have attempted to turn a whole way of life into some kind of criminal conduct,” he said. “That’s really what the long-gun registry is about . . . it’s criminalizing, or attempting to criminalize, a way of life.”

Candice Hoeppner, whose private member’s bill to abolish the registry was defeated in 2010 after a narrow vote, singled out NDP members who pledged to their constituents to vote with the government, only to change sides and vote to save the registry at the last moment.

She named NDP MPs Charlie Angus, Nikki Ashton, Alex Atamanenko, Dennis Bevington, Nathan Cullen, Claude Gravelle and Carol Hughes as those who went against the wishes of their constituents.

“Opposition members cannot be let off the hook for saying one thing and doing another,” she said. “All of these members should know that many of their colleagues were fired by their real bosses: law abiding Canadians who are voting.”

Turmel warned that any NDPMPs breaking ranks would be punished.

“There will be consequences so we’ll see tonight after the vote,” she said.

She said she spoke with MPs Hyer and Rafferty and told them that they should not be voting again with the Tories. At second reading, the duo voted in favour of the bill to scrap the registry, and they voted with the government again on Wednesday evening.

Atamanenko said earlier he would be voting to keep the registry and couldn’t understand why the Tories called him out.

“Obviously, I would have liked to have seen the registry stay in place, but we obviously don’t have a choice,” he said.

Rae said his MPs would be voting to keep the registry, but wasn’t as quick to say whether a Liberal government would bring back the registry if elected in 2015. Rae said politicians would have to take into account what happens in the next three years, including the success of Quebec’s court challenge and whether other provinces follow suit.

The Coalition for Gun Control — which played a key advocacy role in the leadup to the creation of the long-gun registry in 1995 — lamented the destruction of what they had worked so hard for.

“The government is completely ignoring the recommendations of the majority of Canadians including victims of gun violence, women’s groups, suicide prevention experts, police and labour organizations,” a statement from the coalition said.

In other statements, a number of victims of gun violence expressed their disappointment at the government’s move, including Priscilla de Villiers, whose daughter Nina was abducted while jogging and killed with a legally owned non-restricted rifle in 1991.

“These proposals ignore the concerns of victims of gun violence who are mourning their dead or tending to their crippling injuries: this must never happen again,” she said. “We must do all in our power to prevent this carnage, including supporting effective gun control.”

Coalition members, including YWCA Canada CEO Paulette Senior and Alexa Conradi, president of the Quebec Women Federation, excoriated the government for its “ideological” devotion to ending the registry.

“The safety of women must take precedence over a small ‘bureaucratic hassle,’ ” Conradi said. “The decision by the government to delete the existing data can only be described as a punitive measure that has little to do with privacy and much to do with ideology.”